The use of local wireless communications, such as those provided using the IEEE's 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) and Bluetooth standards, provide significant mobility for various types of mobile terminals, ranging from personal computers to personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephones. In general, local wireless access points will provide limited zones in which local wireless communications are afforded.
When a mobile terminal moves into one of the local wireless communication zones, the mobile terminal may have to log on to the access point to gain network access when registering or otherwise associating itself with the access point. Currently, this logon process requires human intervention by the user every time the mobile terminal moves from one communication zone to another or changes between local wireless and cellular communication zones. Once network access is gained, the mobile terminal generally needs to log on to one or more network entities to access or otherwise provide various services, such as email, instant messaging, voice communications, or other types of communications. These services may be the same regardless of the local wireless or cellular communication zone, or may be dependent on the local wireless or cellular communication zone, and thus, may vary from one communication zone to the next. Again, the user of the mobile terminal must manually log on to each network entity to access or receive these services.
Given the desire for mobile terminal users to be able to move from one local wireless communication zone to the next and communicate using the mobile terminal when in different local wireless communication zones, there is a need to allow the mobile terminals to automatically log on to networks as well as desired network entities without user intervention using logon information required for gaining network access from within a given communication zone. Further, if there are multiple local wireless communication zones available to the mobile terminal at any given time, there is a need to provide automated prioritization for selecting the local wireless communication zone to use.